Western Nuclear, Inc. - Split Rock

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1.0 Site Identification

Type of Site:

Uranium Recovery Facility

Location:

Jeffrey City, WY

License No.:

SUA-56

Docket No.:

40-1162

License Status:

Possession Only License

Project Manager:

Dominick Orlando

2.0 Site Status Summary

This is a uranium mill tailings site located approximately 2 miles west of Jeffrey City, Fremont County, Wyoming. The site consists of three reclaimed tailings impoundments occupying approximately 180 acres and other reclaimed disposal areas.

Mill operations commenced in 1958 and continued until 1981. Uranium ore processed at the mill was extracted in mines south of the facility. The mill operations consisted of physical and chemical including sulfuric acid leaching. Decommissioning of the mill was completed on September 15, 1988. Surface reclamation has been completed for the tailings impoundments. The plan for the evaporation ponds cover was approved in October 2006, and the two evaporation ponds have been reclaimed. The Construction Completion Report for the evaporation ponds was approved on November 30, 2007. On 12/1/08, the licensee submitted a request asking for a change in compliance criteria for their groundwater protection standards. Additionally on 3/9/09, in preparation for transfer of the site to DOE, Western Nuclear requested standards for constituents that previously had no standards at their point of compliance wells. These requests were approved by License Amendment 105 dated Feb. 24, 2010. The licensee has stated that they believe that they have completed all actions necessary for NRC to begin the license termination process. The NRC staff has been reviewing the information provided by the licensee to determine if all necessary approvals have been granted and controls in place to begin the process of terminating the license.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

Groundwater sampling results indicate that the contaminants at the site do not appear to be performing as predicted in the groundwater model for the site. The staff has requested additional information from the licensee to help validate the groundwater model.